so at some point I guess I ought to post again

I can't remember the last time I posted something here that wasn't fic, oops.

December was super busy. The day after NaNo ended I went down to DC with my mother to take the JLPT. We always go down for the weekend and shop on Saturday, and now that my brother is living there for school we have dinner with him Sunday night. It's nice? But I needed that week in between or at least part of one, and if it happens that fast next year, I'm not taking the JLPT because it was way, way too much. I was a complete crank to my mother the entire time, which is not entirely undeserved I want to add, but still not okay.

I can't even remember what all else happened, but I didn't have a single weekend to myself until I left for Japan and everything was a haze of exhaustion and lack of sleep. I did go to NYC to see timeripple which I think I posted about, and it was fun and who knows when the next time I'll see her will be? but same thing, it was the weekend before I left Wednesday night for Japan, so i knew it was a mistake while I was doing it.

Weeks and weeks ago I had pitched that my dad and i should drive down to DC the night before my 6am Japan flight, spend the night at my brother's apartment, and then have a much shorter trip to the airport. Two days before my trip, my parents decided that was stupid (idek) and so instead we left here at 2am so I would be at the airport at 4am for my 6am flight. SLEEPING I USED TO DO YOU. I just took it, because at that point I simply couldn't argue about anything anymore. So I started out the whole thing in a strung-out, unshowered mess before I ever was on a plane.

The flight itself was AWESOME because I was in business class thanks to my mom's friend's upgrade that allowed me to book this flight at all, and thank god I did go early, since right behind me was a Chicago snowstorm that canceled ALL THE FLIGHTS. Aside from them feeding me like every ten seconds (ice cream sundae cart, you guys) I could lay my seat completely flat, so I did sleep, sort of, at least a couple hours. Which was good because once I arrived in Japan, I spent the next like four days entirely unable to sleep basically at all.

I would just lie there in the dark for hours, no sleep. I don't even know. whatever. Eventually we went to Hakone and did onsen for most of the day, and after that it improved, so the hot water or freaky minerals must have fixed whatever it was. Maybe it was the black eggs we ate there, which are supposed to be lucky and add 7 years to your life per egg, but I will vouch for their deliciousness.

I did a lot of fun things and saw all the people, and then I got to do Countdown my last night where we had just about the worst possible seats (2nd to last row), but this is probably the only time I'll ever get a chance to go since school always starts on the 2nd for me, so I really enjoyed it. They do like 45 min or so of concert before the broadcast starts, and Kis-My-Ft2 got to start the whole show, so I was really proud of them, and ABC-Z who came out second. In general all the groups I really would want to see were there (T&T were together there for the first time in YEARS and YEARS), and the ones who I don't mind missing were away. Much like drama filming last trip, it wasn't the sort of thing I want to do a million times, but I'm happy I got to do it this once, and it was really interesting what we saw vs what made it onto the television.

School this week was a challenge, since I started back Wednesday morning after getting home at midnight Tuesday night. I kept thinking about calling off, esp Thursday when I was having all the coffee milk withdrawal, but it's just too much work. We have more testing coming up and then mid-terms so there's a lot of messed-up schedules coming, and I have mandatory training that I'll miss class for too. Uuugh. I'm still thinking about taking off this week, if I can make it fall between altered schedule days. or I could be a real jerk and take off an afternoon on one of the altered days, since that would mean I'd do...like maybe two classes. But really, i'll probably just take it since then I don't have to write down any directions.